Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-06-01
LESSON IN ANATOMY.

EAEH2% q
--
It was at Naples that the incident
occurred Of which I am about to speak,
said Gen. Gerald as he seated himself
at q table in the Napolino Club room
and lighted a cigar. It was many years
ago andwhen I was verymuch younger
man than / am at present, but I have
only to close my eyes and the place
the scene, evento its smallest detail-
is before me as distinctly as upon tho
day it happened.
The name Of tho principal actor inn
plicated in the horrible affair I with
hold for obvious reasons, but I will say
that he was a well known. physician,
celebrated in the profession Of medicine
and scientific surgery, and that he is
dead. He died regretted, beloved, and
honored by all who knew him, though
it might have been otherwise, in spite
of his generous and kindly nature, had
everything been told; but I am getting
too far ahead in the story. :.
In the winter of 1850, the General
continued, addressing tho group of
gentlemen gathered about the table
with him, most of them in tho semi
official dress of men who have at one
time servedin the army, business called
me to the city of Naples. I had been
there six months or moro when acci-
dent brought me the acquaintance of
Pietro Gonzalez, a youth from the Island
of Calabres, who had come to the
Capital of the Two .Sicilies for the the
purpose of devoting himself to the pro-
fession of advocate. Pietro detested
the profession of advocate, was wholly
untitled for it, in fact, and had adopted
it only to crafty the wishes of his
father. However, at the time that /
met him he had given it up and was
going through a course of medical
studies as conscientiously, even though
as per%functorily, pursued as the former
course of law.
Perhaps you are not aware of it, but
it is nevertheless true that the parents
of the youth of Italy, particularly Of
Naples, whether of the higher or of
the middle classes of society, recog-
nize but two suitable careers for their
sons-one the bar, the other medicine
the 'liberal professions" as they call
them-and so far do they carry the
perjudice that a young man who
persists in the choice of a profession
other than one of the two named is
Immediately turned out of doors by his
parents, the ceremony being accom-
panied by appropriate maledictions.
Under the circumstances it is not re-
markable that Neapolitan circles are
%singularly lacking in notable architects,
authors, poets, and painters, and singu-
larly o~vercrowded in other directions;
but to return.
A warm and close intimacy had
gradually established itself between
Gonzalez and myself. One day, meet
ing him in the street on his way to one
of his interminable lectures, he invited
me to accompany him. With little
fancy for amusements of this kind /
tried to get out of it, preferring to
study the structure of the human body
from books of physiology, or, better
still, from living beings. 1t was not as
realistic, of course, but sufficiently in
structive for one whose business re.
quired him to make instead of mangline
corpses. Overruled at last by Peitro's
persistency, but still against my will, ]
consented to go with him.
No, decidedly. I have not forgotten
the scene which chance or fatality
made me a witness of, nor the theatre
of it's occurrence; but when I say
theatre, I do not use the right word
amphitheatre would be more correct,
for we were in the dissecting-room Of
the sHospital des ~lncurables, a cruel
and sinister name for the unfortunate
ones brought there to be treated.
Pietro told me as We walked along
that DR.. X, we will call him, for the
sake of convenience, the physician tc
whom I referred a while ago, was not
to deliver one of his usual public lee
lures, but a semi-private lesson in anat.
omy to a dozen or so of his best pupils,
demonstrated, of course, by the scapel
AS Il favorite of the doctors, Pietro wa
occasionally permitted to bring a frieno
with him. He had invited-nay, NOR,
than that-he had kidnapped me-. -.
The huge, circular hall appropriated
to the making of autopsies in the Hos
pital des Incurables was lighted hat
forgotten to say that it was a night lee
ture-by a large and peculiarly con
structed lantern hanging low from thu
center of the ceiling. A powerful UNI
brella-shaped reflector, supported upo1
an upright, was so arranged above thu
lantern as to throw all the light from
the burners down upon a marble tabl'
standing just beneath it. The rest 0
the lugubrious apartment was plunged
in q black ObscuritV.